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Increase education funding now, union urges legislators (UPDATED)

Author of the article:

Janet Steffenhagen

Publishing date:

April 26, 2011 • 3 minute read

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With provincial politicians back in the legislature, the B.C. Teachers’ Federation (BCTF) is calling on Premier Christy Clark to immediately increase education funding so that boards of education can restore services in keeping with a pivotal court ruling earlier this month.

“As education minister, Clark brought in legislation that was specifically designed to enable her government to take at least $275 million every year from public education,” union president Susan Lambert says in a release Wednesday. “A decade later, that legislation has been found to be unconstitutional and invalid so she needs to immediately put that funding back into schools to restore what was wrongfully cut.”

Government action is needed now while boards are still preparing their 2011-12 budgets, she says, while suggesting the money could come from the almost $1 billion set aside in the last Liberal budget to give the new premier wiggle room. “This is a question of priorities, not money. The funds are there if Premier Clark has the political will to make things right for students and teachers across the province by immediately announcing that the funding will be in place to restore those teaching and learning conditions next September. Kids shouldn’t have to wait another year in oversized classes where it’s difficult for their needs to be met.”

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UPDATE: Asked about the BCTF statement, Finance Minister Kevin Falcon suggested government doesn’t have that kind of money readily available and said teachers “probably recognize, even if reluctantly, the fact that we are still in very uncertain times in British Columbia.”

He said his ministry has not yet assessed what it might cost to adhere to the court decision. Reporters in Victoria put the same questions to Education Minister George Abbott, who said government still hasn’t decided if it will appeal the ruling. Until that decision is made, there’s no point in speculating about the cost, he said. A decision on a possible appeal is expected within days, he added.

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“Once we’ve made that decision, what I would hope to do is sit down with the teachers’ federation – as I did yesterday – to talk about the issues around Bill 28 and what potentially government might think about doing around that issue.”

Earlier this month, the B.C. Supreme Court struck down laws passed by the Liberals in 2002 that eliminated clauses in the contract that had allowed class size, class composition and ratios for specialist teachers to be determined through collective bargaining. (Those laws are known as Bills 27 and 28.) Clark, then education minister, said schools needed more flexibility in organizing classes, but the court said contract stripping wasn’t the way to deal with the issue.

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In her April 13 ruling, Justice Susan Griffin said Treasury Board had estimated that Bills 27 and 28 would provide an annualized saving of $275 million. “These savings were below the government’s desired budget targets for education. At that time, the class size limit thresholds being considered in draft legislation were lower than what was ultimately implemented by the legislation. Further, the estimate noted that it did not include any savings in capital expenditures, but it was thought that the larger class sizes might result in fewer classrooms and cancellation of new schools, providing even more savings.”

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Griffin said government didn’t deliver evidence to the court that class size limits were creating problems.

“The evidence that the government relied on in the hearing before me, to support its assertion that class size limits were causing hardship to students and parents, was anecdotal hearsay. It was so vague and unsubstantiated that it was impossible for BCTF to challenge it meaningfully. It would be unfair to give it any weight for the truth of its contents. However, members of government were told of these stories by BCPSEA (public school employers) in 2001, and may have believed them, and so it has some relevance as potentially informing the government objective of the challenged legislation.”

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